Industry in distress: How did it come to this?

I've been out of town and just caught up to this thread, and first, it should be said that in a sea of unreadable articles around these parts, you did pen a good one, Joe.  Nice work.

This Joe always likes it when other Joes promote the good of the name.

That said, I don't want to be a wet blanket here either, but the Sunday Ticket idea smacks to me of one of those fan walkouts.  It's a good idea in theory, but it's going to fall apart in execution.  Not to be a d*ck, but I have the Ticket and I'm not going to cancel it, and I'm as upset about this thing as anybody. 

Sadly, the Ticket idea is one of those cutting off your nose to spite your face things.  Now, if you are one of many who doesn't care to watch the NFL without a bet on it and are going to cancel your subscription anyway, then, sure, all of you canceling on the same day is a nice gesture, but really I think that's going to be about it. 

Right now the NFL is the 800 lb. gorilla and, as mentioned above, the number of subscribers overall would swallow up the few hundred, even thousand or two that protest. 

The other thing I wonder about is this.  Do we really need publicity?

One of the things I agree with in the article, that I've been saying for some time, is that the promotion and advertising that specific companies have done has been a killer to us.  I personally want to beat the marketing department at Sportsbook.com with a blunt object for about 27 consecutive hours.  The stuff some of these companies have done is akin to having Vito stand outside a police station with a whiteboard asking for action it's that unbelievably stupid.

The truth is, it's easier politically and faux-morally to condemn gambling across the board and accept a fight against it, either tacitly or overtly, than to stand up for it.  In part because of the stigma, but also because again, as mentioned above, gamblers for the most part enjoy their anonymity.

But what gamblers have in this fight is money.  And money, in many ways in this country, is still speech (yes, I'm a liberal, and yes, I just said that). 

So, in my opinion, what we need to do is put that money to good use and get a lobby.  The poker players--who some sports guys blame for all of this--aren't our enemy, and nor are we theirs.  Same with the horse folk.  There should be room for us all on the same bus because once one of us gets thrown in the dock, there's no reason they won't eventually come for the others whenever they feel like it. 

I think it's time we use our money to find our voice and pay for democracy the way all the other lobbies do. 

As the article says, we're at an impasse, but that doesn't mean the only way to go from here is up.  If we do nothing, there's a very good chance that impasse becomes isolation, that isolation becomes illegality, and then everyone who doesn't want to drive 600 miles or fly four hours to a corporate casino somewhere suddenly becomes a criminal.

What about hitting the US where it hurts? It's economy. If we withdrew all of our funds and transferred them to foreign financial firms, if the amount was large enough, if enough people followed suit, what would the US do?

I'm talking about savings accounts, 401K plans, stock, bonds, etc.... and invest in foreign resources. There will be transfer fees but that's the price we would pay to make a statement.

If we can't choose to do what we want with our OWN money in the US, lets move it elsewhere (not necessarily to fund our gambling) and make a statement.

10,000 people moving $50,000 each is half a billion. That has to get their attention......right?

I've been an onling gambler for a number of years, and a member of covers as well. I've never been much of a forum reader or poster, but I believe this issue warrants something different.  I've read most of this post, and I agree that most of the ideas brought up are good ones (NFL Sunday Ticket boycott, orginization of rallies, etc.)  I believe that if we could get everyone on the same page, it would have a great impact and help our cause significantly.

I believe we should stop talking about what to do, and actually do something.  Everyone who reads this post should write their congressman. Let your views be heard, construct a well written letter that shows we are not "criminals" but are American's who feel our right to live as we choose is being infringed on.  The link below will take you to a site that listed all Representatives who took part in the vote on the bill in question.  Find out how your politician voted.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2006-363

I'll be finishing the letter I've been working on this weekend.  If you want a copy to send to your representative please give me a way to deliver it to you, and I'll be happy to send you a copy, and make the process easier for all.

I think organization is a brilliant idea to protect our rights as free Americans, however, that takes time.  Why not do something now?

In all honesty, I know writing letters to representatives won't get a repeal of the law. There's two few of us, we don't have enough money, and there's more pressing issues at the current moment. However, I'm still going to write mine and I encourage others to do the same. When it comes down to it, I want my voice to atleast be heard; and writing a letter really doesn't take too much time, effort, or money from any of us.  

Besides writing your elected reps, you can post a message directly to the House subcommittee with jurisdiction here.

The Senate subcommittee that has jurisdiction is chaired by Sen. John Kerry. 

The full Senate committee over Kerry's subcommittee is chaired by Sen. Inouye from Hawaii.  Ever wonder why Hawaii is one of the two states that does not have any form of legalized gambling?  He's why.  He doesn't even let gambling lobbyists into his office.  He's a good man and I have great respect for him, but I disagree with him on this issue.

when the DOJ changes hands in 2008, the new administration will re-prioritize what they attack.  That will be the time to fix the situation.  As long as the Bushies/chritian fundys are in charge nothing is going to change.

Update...

I haven't forgotten about this.

Right now, we are trying to figure out the best way for us, as a company, to proceed.

We are putting together a plan of action for us to begin following this, and similar, issues in the future. This way, we hope to do a better job of both keeping our readers informed, along with informing the larger public.

On that point, our marketing team did a fantastic job of disseminating this column. It got picked up by a number of blogs and made the Top 20 in a number of political blog/news trackers.

So already we can see that there is a certain amount of mainstream curiosity, if not outright interest, in this issue.

The one thing I think everybody above agrees upon is the need to play the political game and form (or support) a lobby or industry group, such as the Poker Players Alliance.

To that end, we are currently evaluating possibilities.

We should have a lot of this completed within a short period. Some new opinion pieces should also be posted soon.

Thanks for the participation!